Updated 10/31/2020

Ah, Halloween—suddenly there are pumpkins on stoops and porches, bags of candy corn in stores, decorations hanging from doors… For Springfield, Missouri, photographer Megan Roloff of Megan Ashleih Boudoir, one spooky Halloween decoration turned into a hilarious and classy skeleton boudoir session that caused an online sensation (and print sales and interest from new clients) when she photographed her “subject” in several different boudoir poses.

“There was really no planning behind this at all,” Roloff told Café Mom, a website targeted for moms and mothers-to-be, in a recent interview. “I hold boudoir marathon sessions at different locations each month and this time I was using a friend’s gorgeous plant-filled home for the day. I’m extremely pregnant and so showed up early that day before my friend left for work. She showed me the skeleton she had just bought for decorating with, and joked that I should shoot ‘her.'”

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“Posing ‘her’ really made me just crack myself up completely,” Roloff recalled, “all the snapping and cracking of the joints as I tried to come up with pose ideas for the stiffest client I’ve ever worked with. Many were detailed shots that would typically be very risqué shots with clients. I don’t think I’ve ever laughed so hard by myself, and it went on throughout the rest of the day.”

Once Roloff posted the fun, playful and “sexy” skeleton boudoir session to her Facebook page with the line “Look who came in and KILLED their boo-doir session,” things really took off. As of this writing, the post had 9,300 reactions and 11,000 comments. Fun comments and good-natured jokes included lines such as, “I’m sure the shoot lifted her spirits…or his!” and, “I am so glad you were able to fit her into your schedule! She has been DYING to do these.”

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Photographing boudoir (with real people) is something Roloff says she absolutely loves doing, mostly for the connections and friendships she creates. “Getting to be there with them during their most vulnerable moments, and breaking through finding self-love and healing is amazing for me,” she told CaféMom.

There might not be a lot of connecting one can do with a skeleton, but the photographer has been able to extend the playful shoot into a business venture, selling “Killer Boo-doir Skeleton” prints on metal and canvas, and as posters and framed fine-art prints in an online gallery. She has even started photographing couples sessions with the skeleton—luckily for the skeleton, its partner has flesh on her bones!